Twin
by Liam Jackson
Summary: The crew of the Enterprise investigate a strange nebula.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Lieutenant Uhura stepped out of her quarters, the doors, hissing closed behind her. She turned to walked along the corridor until she reached the turbolift.

Once inside the lift, she addressed the computer, "Deck ten, aft section."

The lift gave a slight lurch as it began it's accent from deck fourteen, and there was a slight hum in the background.

Uhura had just begun to hum Beyond Antares when the com-panel sounded.

"Scotty to Lieutenant Uhura," the voice said.

Uhura smiled and responded, "What's with the formalities Scotty, I'm off duty until tomorrow morning."

"Well in that case, how would you like to join me for a drink?"

"I was just hoping you'd ask." Although she couldn't see him, she was sure Scotty had broken into grin.

"I'll meet ya in the recreation area in ten minutes."

Before Uhura could respond, the entire ship shook violently.

The main lighting dimmed slightly and a red light began flashing above the turbolift door. Captain Kirk's voice came over the ship-wide speakers, "Red alert, senior staff report to the bridge."

The ship shook again followed by the sound of a tremendous explosion. The turbolift came to a quick stop as the panel next to the door exploded in a shower of sparks.

Again, the ship shook. Uhura stumbled backwards and hit her head against the turbolift wall. Suddenly, the doors of the turbolift exploded, coming towards Uhura. She put her hands in front of her face and screamed. There was a blinding flash and Uhura opened her eyes.

She was looking at the coms station on the bridge. She looked around, and then placed her hand on her temple and closed her eyes.

"Lieutenant, are you ill?" Mr. Spock stared at her, eyebrows raised.

"Mr. Spock, I..." She looked around at the other bridge staff going about their normal business. "No, no I'm fine. I just..."

Spock tilted his head ever so slightly and said, "Yes?"

"Never mind, it was nothing." She turned back to her station and tried to shake the odd feeling. Hadn't she just been somewhere else?


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Uhura shook the feeling a returned to her duties. She flipped several switches on the panel in front of her and looked up at the tiny screen in front of her. Monitoring sub-space channels could be tedious at times, but this was not one of those times. A faint red line jumped on the screen, repeating a pattern.

"Captain, I'm detecting what looks like a distress call."

Captain Kirk stood from his command chair and leaned against the railing between the raised and sunken parts of the bridge floor. "Can you pinpoint it's location?"

Uhura pressed several buttons and flipped another switch and then said, "Transferring to main view screen."

The star field on the main view screen vanished and was promptly replaced by a star chart plotting a corse to the distress call's location.

"I can't make out what the message is saying from this distance, there seems to be some type o f interference."

"Confirmed captain." Mr. Spooked looked up from his view screen as Uhura and Kirk looked at him. "The transmission seems to be emanating from within a dense class three nebula. Sensors detect massive amounts of temporal energy."

The captain moved to stand in front of his chair, looking at the view screen. "On screen Mr. Spock." The screen changed to display an image of a greenish-blue cloud of gas floating in space.

"It is mostly comprised of argon."

"Take us closer Mr. Sulu."

"Aye captain." Sulu adjusted the controls on the panel in front of him and the ship surged forward.

"Captain," Spock clasped his hands behind his back as he spoke, "the temporal energy contained in the nebula could pose a threat to the ship."

"Before we enter the nebula, adjust the main deflector dish to emit an inverse takion wave, that should protect us from any anomalies."

Spock nodded and turned to make the preparations.

"Captain," Sulu turned, "I've put us right at the edge."

"Excellent. Lieutenant Uhura, can you make out the message now?"

Uhura tapped several controls in front of her, each responding with a beep or whirr. "I'm still having trouble breaking through the interference."

Spock peered into his view screen again. "There seems to be some type of sub-space dampening field surrounding the nebula," he said, not bothering to look away from the screen.

He suddenly stood strait up. "If these reading are correct sir, the dampening field would seem to be artificially generated from somewhere within the nebula."

"Are you saying that someone is generating a sub-space jamming field as large as a class three nebula?"

"It would appear so, captain."

Kirk suddenly turned, "Mr. Sulu, take us into that nebula."

"Captain, I must protest..."

"Noted Mr. Spock, but if someone in that nebula is in trouble, we have an obligation to help them. Mr. Sulu..."

"Aye sir, ahead at three quarters impulse."

The ship moved forward, and, several seconds later, broke the sub-space barrier surrounding the nebula. There was a lurch and the ship came to a complete stop. "Sulu, what's going on?"

"I'm not sure sir, helm isn't responding."

"Engineering to bridge." Scotty's voice came over the comm. "What ever that was we just went through put the engine out of commission. The matter/antimatter injector is locked up."

"How long until you can repairs can be completed."

"Several hours at least. Looks like we're dead in the water for a while sir."

"Get started on those repairs, Scotty." The captain pressed a button on the comm panel and terminated the transmission. "How are you coming with that distress call Uhura?"

"I think I can give you audio sir," she placed her earpiece in her right ear and began working on the panel.

A deafening screech came over the speakers, which slowly toned down, turning into a garbled voice.

"Can you clear it up any, lieutenant?"

She flipped several more switches and the voice cleared up.

"This is the USS Enterprise calling any vessel. We have sustained heavy damage. Require immediate assistance. Our warp core is..." The transmission ended, abruptly.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Uhura looked at the captain Kirk, a stunned expression on her face. "Captain, how could..."

"I don't know lieutenant," the captain looked frazzled, "Mr. Spock, what can you tell me about what just happened?"

"I have confirmed that the signal did indeed come from the Enterprise. It has the same subspace frequency as this ship. It is, in essence, a twin."

"A twin? How is that possible?"

"It is probable to assume that the temporal energy within this nebula has affected the ship in some unknown way. The only way to learn anything more is to reroute power from the main deflector dish to sensors, but that would put the ship at risk."

Mr. Sulu looked up from his console, "Sir, a ship is approaching," everyone looked up at the main viewer. It as as if they were looking into a mirror. They could make out every detail of the ship, every identical detail.

The other Enterprise aligned itself in front of the ship

"I have run a full analysis of the other ship and sensors confirm that it is identical all the way down to the molecular level sir," Spock stood with his arms clasped behind his back.

"Could the sensors be malfunctioning?"

"Negative captain, I have checked all systems; there are no malfunctions."

"I want the senior staff to meet in the briefing room," Kirk paused as he pressed one of the comm buttons on the arm of his chair. "Scotty, I want you to lock tractor beams on the ship, it doesn't go anywhere until I say so."

"Aye sir," came Scott's reply.

A few minutes later, the senior staff sat around a triangular table, looking at an image of the other ship on the small view screen at the center of the table.

"McCoy, what do you have?"

The doctor sat up and addressed the others, "I ran bioscans of the life signs, and they match perfectly with those aboard this ship, right down to the individual atom. They are exact duplicates of our crew with only one exception." He stopped as he pressed several buttons on the medical tricorder on the table in front of him. A schematic appeared on the view-screen, replacing the image of the other ship.

"The brain cells of every person on that ship have deteriorated more than those of the crew of this ship. Based on the rate of decay, that crew is about three weeks older that our crew."

Spock interrupted, "Confirmed captain. I have just received the results of a quantum dating analysis of the other ship's hull that has determined it is two to three weeks older than the hull of our ship." He held a tricorder in his left hand, that was displaying the quantum dating analysis.

Everyone looked at Kirk, who in turn looked at Uhura, "Lieutenant, I assume you tried to contact the other ship?"

"Yes sir, their comm system seems to be offline."

The captain pressed a button on the small panel in front of him and the view screen changed once more. It now displayed an image of the engineering section.

"Scotty," There was a brief silence and then Scotty's face filled the screen. " Can you get a transporter lock on someone from that ship?"

"Aye sir, but it will take a good bit of power to cut through the interference this nebula is creating."

"Reroute all available power to the transporters, I'll meet you in the transporter room," he said as he stood. "Bones, you're with me. Dismissed."

Everyone filed out of the room. Kirk and McCoy walked directly to the turbolift. The doors hissed open and the pair entered, Kirk saying, "Transporter room."

The doors closed and the lift made it's descent. Within the minute, the captain and the doctor where walking through the door to the transporter room.

Scotty greeted them as the door slid closed behind them.

"I've got a lock on one of them, but I can't read the biosign through all of the interference. It could be anyone."

Kirk nodded and Scotty began the transport procedure. A loud humming noise issued from the transporter pad as Scott pulled the levers down. There was a high pitched whine and a yellow cloud of energy appeared, hovering over the pad.

Slowly the cloud began to take form, looking more and more like a man. The cloud began flickering and almost vanished, but Scott managed to correct the problem.

Finally, the man materialized. Just as this happened, Spock came though the door of the transporter room, looking up at the man on the transporter pad. Spock rarely came close to displaying emotion, but it was hard to contain the emotion he was feeling now. He was looking at what looked like a clone of himself.

Both Spocks looked at each other, raised an eyebrow and said, "Fascinating."


End file.
